Health Hazard

December 12, 1985

'What they don't know won't hurt them.'' Like many adages, this one has a good ring to it, but is often untrue. A prime example of that is hazardous wastes: Much of the public -- and many public officials -- seem content to ignore this danger as long as the wastes are not collected. Once someone starts handing out responsibility for handling this danger, people start getting concerned.

Unless Seminole County summons the courage to designate a site for collecting hazardous wastes, residents are doomed to wake up one day and learn that what they didn't know is harming, if not killing, them.

That courage was absent Tuesday when the county commission again sided with protestors and denied a site just outside Winter Springs for Hazardous Waste Consultants. That firm collects hazardous wastes and hauls them out of state for disposal. The site had been approved earlier by the county's board of adjustment but was fought by the city of Winter Springs.

Never mind that collecting and shipping out wastes is far safer than the hodgepodge way those chemicals are handled now; never mind that HWC has agreed to go far beyond what the law requires for safe handling; never mind that collection is a safe alternative to allowing the accumulation of leaky chemical drums all over the county. All the opponents know is that the dangerous chemicals would be collected and stored in a central location before being shipped out. Once collected, the content and amount of the wastes would be known. Thus, there is reason to be fearful.

The county's reaction is shameful. No one has offered any valid reason to deny the site and meanwhile these critics seem unconcerned about the accumlation of dangerous chemicals going on all over the county. That attitude is shortsighted and dangerous. Seminole County needs to muster the courage to approve a site for collecting the county's hazardous wastes. What people do not know can be dangerous to their health.